Jan van der Valk

Jan van der Valk

Kontakt:

E-Mail: jan.vandervalk@univie.ac.at
ORCID: https://orcid.org/my-orcid?orcid=0000-0002-7409-253X

Jan van der Valk (PhD, University of Kent) is a scholar-practitioner specializing in Sowa Rigpa (Tibetan medicine). Drawing on a multidisciplinary training in anthropology, ethnobotany, and biology, his interests revolve around Eurasian medicinal plants, traditional pharmaceutical processes, more-than-human ecologies, and knowledge transmission. He mainly conducts ethnographic fieldwork in the Himalayan valleys of Ladakh (India) and Kathmandu (Nepal). Jan works part-time as a postdoctoral researcher, contributing to two Austrian Science Fund research projects which he co-conceived with his colleagues: Potent Substances (2018–2023) and Pandemic Narratives (2023–present). Besides academic work, Jan maintains a private Tibetan medical practice in Belgium, while also collaborating with his teacher Gen. Pasang Yonten Arya as the editor in chief of Bedurya Publications.

His publications include an introduction, journal article, and perspective piece in a HIMALAYA special issue he co-edited titled Approaching Potent Substances in Medicine and Ritual across Asia (2019). He has also co-edited and contributed to a blogpost series on early Asian medical responses to COVID-19 (Cultural Anthropology Hot Spots, 2020), published a chapter on the clash of Tibetan medicinal plant trade and conservation efforts in Northern India (Asian Medical Industries, 2022), and co-authored a biographical entry on Tashi Yangphel Tashigang for Treasury of Lives.

Online resources

Potent Substances project: https://potentsubstances.univie.ac.at/

Pandemic Narratives project: https://pandemic-narratives.univie.ac.at/

Bedurya Publications: https://beduryapublications.org